Assurance of salvation is one of the most common struggles I see in the American Church today. While the aim of this post is not to address this struggle fully, I do want to address it truly by clarifying a foundational truth about salvation: Jesus is ENOUGH. When we confuse this truth, we find ourselves in an enslaving cycle of works based righteousness. When we embrace this truth, we enjoy the liberating effects the Gospel is supposed to have both in and through our lives.
The Bible teaches that those who are in Christ are free from condemnation (Romans 8:1). That is to say that those who have been rescued by the saving grace of Jesus are secured eternally by the very same. Paul went so far as to say that our spirits are seated with Christ in heaven upon being raised to life in him (Ephesians 2:6). Those verses simply could not and would not hold water if the penalty of sin still lingered over the lives of those who have trusted in Christ "by grace" and "through faith" (Ephesians 2:8).
Furthermore, to think that God would reserve the right to administer eternal punishment over believer's lives is to also say that the death of Jesus was powerless to appease His wrath. Romans 3:24-26 clearly shows us that the blood of Jesus was poured out as a "propitiation" for our sins. The basic meaning of propitiation is to "appease" or "satisfy." When Jesus went to the cross, He satisfied the wrath of God once and for all. The Christian who continually approaches God for salvation after each and every time they sin is like a power company who approaches my wife to pay for a bill that I took care of years ago. Legitimate power companies don't work that way and neither does the one true God. Those who do this have either not been saved or have drastically misunderstood the Gospel. Sometimes both.
What is more, this approach to salvation argues against the power of the cross as well as the testimony of scripture. Such reasoning confuses gift righteousness with works righteousness. The Bible teaches the former not the latter. Hear me on this: God frees, forgives, and restores us to himself NOT based off of what we do for him but based on what He did for us (II Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5). Although grace is not opposed to effort it is opposed to earning. The reason the Gospel is so beautiful is because we could never earn the benefits God freely offers to us therein. The Gospel declares that the only resume God will accept is that of Jesus. Were that not the case, we would still need to observe the sacrificial laws the of the Old Testament. When Jesus declared "It is finished," it was finished! Thanks to the finished work of Jesus, when God looks upon those who are in Christ, He no longer sees the dysfunction of our sin but rather the perfection of His Son. Thus explaining why Jesus is enough.
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